Sars travel advice extended

Thursday, 8 May 2003 12:00 AM

The World Health Organisation has extended its travel warnings for Sars as the killer virus continues to spread.

A new alert against all non-essential travel to the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, and two more regions of China has been added to existing advice on the WHO's website.

The WHO is advising that travellers exercise 'precaution' before travelling to the city of Tianjin or to Inner Mongolia.

Warnings against travel to Hong Kong, Beijing and China's Guangdong and Shanxi provinces have already been issued. A similar warning about Toronto has now been lifted.

The number of confirmed deaths from the deadly strain of pneumonia has now passed 500.

In Russia, authorities have suspended ticket sales on all flights to mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as reports of the first suspected case of Sars emerged. The country is reportedly considering closing its border with China.

China has announced six new deaths, bringing the total fatalities in the country from Sars to 225. More than120 officials have been sacked for failing to respond adequately to the disease.

WHO officials are currently investigating the Chinese Hebei province after the number of cases there doubled in a week.

Hong Kong has revealed that another four people have died from the illness, bringing the special administrative region's total deaths to 208.

The World Tourism Organisation is launching a study on the impact of Sars and claims that the outbreak has had a greater impact on tourism than either the terrorist attack on Bali or the Iraq war.

The organisation's secretary-general Francesco Frangialli commented: 'While governments and other institutions must assume their responsibilities in protecting citizens from proven risks, the recommended restrictions should be no broader than strictly needed to avoid creating additional problems for industries like tourism, which can make such a decisive contribution to social and economic development.'

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